Tuesday, September 29, 2009

I'm not sure how much Alex will appreciate me posting this story, however, it's my blog and, honestly, it's just too funny not to tell!

Our first night in Cancun, we walked down to the beach front bar for a few drinks after dinner. After sitting, chatting, and listening to the waves for a while, we started to head back upstairs but we sidetracked by the "game time" going on over by the pool area. We were pulled from the crowd for a couples dancing game.

After a few minutes, though, they made all the women sit down but kept the guys up there.

Monday, September 28, 2009

We had a great time Sunday morning celebrating Charlie's first birthday with a few friends and family.

Here's our birthday boy with his birthday hat on. He actually wore it for about 20 seconds which is a hat-wearing record for him.

He enjoyed opening his presents. Well,l I should say, Jack and Melody enjoyed opening his presents. This is the only present Charlie actually got to open. And really he only tore the paper a little bit before the rest of the kids swooped in and finished it off.

The masterpiece cake I made. I was pretty proud of it even thought it didn't look nearly as good as the one of the video I used as a guide.

Do you think he liked the cake?

Of course he did! Who doesn't like cake? No one in our family, at least.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Do y'all remember that phrase? Apparently some people's mothers dropped the ball and forgot to mention it to their children.

In the past several weeks, I've gotten several comments (anonymous, of course) that have not followed this mantra.Now, I have actually deleted them because it ticks me off that I can't respond to the author herself. However, I'm going to post them here and respond to them.

Comment #1

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "a helpful letter to the management at Victoria's S...":Ok....First of all I work in retail as well. So, just because they didn't kiss your ass doesn't mean they weren't nice or had poor customer quality skills. I don't think you have ever worked for retail, because if you have, then think of it in their perspective. They stand there for up to 8 or more hours a day, trying to re-stock their items and help people when they can. They are on a radio 24/7, and their job requires that if they have a day off and they need a shift covered and they call you, you have to go in. It's an "on call" job. (No I dont work for VS). On the other hand, customers are idiots. They just are. And heaven for bid someone didn't say hello to you, I bet you just exaggerated this whole thing because you were upset. And your kids? Well theres something called a babysiter, your husband, or simply go when you have free time. Shopping with children isn't a good idea anyway. So instead of giving them adivce, give yourself some. Stop being those bitchy customers that complain and deal with it. Not everyone is perfect and just because they don't say hello doesn't mean they don't have good customer service. You need to get a life. Posting blogs about this is really lame, and your a mother you should feel dumb. The only reason why I replied is because I'm constucting a report on them for a business class and stumbled upon this ridiculous site. And one more thing, if you know so much then why don't you go change how they are? Oh wait, you cant. :)

And here's the response I would have sent:First of all, here’s a little tip for you; proofreading is a good idea.Perhaps you should also look into purchasing a grammar book.

Second of all, I hope you fail your project.And, if it’s full of grammatical errors like your comment was, you probably will.

Thirdly, you’re a customer too, of some place.So, are you including yourself in that idiot comment?

Lastly, someone at Victoria’s Secret’s corporate office saw this and did not think it was lame.In fact, they contacted me and sent me a very generous gift card.Since I’m sure you’ll think I’m lying, here’s a photo for you.

maybe you shouldnt have hauled around toddlers into vs. theres nothing more annoying than screaming children while your trying to relax and shop. plus you cant expect them to just revolve the entire store around you--there may be handicapped ppl who deserve those rooms. and plus who the hell goes shopping for bras with children? what kind of a freak are you?

And here's what I would have responded with:

If you want to shop and relax at the same time, perhaps you should open an adults only store.In case you aren’t aware, children are people too and have the same rights as you do.

2.I never said my children were screaming.When my children behave poorly in public, I leave.My children were behaving like any other active, happy children.

3.Most people with children go shopping for many items of clothing with their children.Next time you’re in a shopping area try opening your eyes and looking around.

4.I never expected the store to revolve around me.I simply expect to be treated like any other customer who's business is valued.

5.Since you seem to know little if anything about children, I’m assuming you have none. It’s probably because you’re too big a b#(%& to find someone who will marry you.Try being nicer.

And here's comment #3 (who I'm pretty sure is the same person who left comment #2)

That African tribal women comment was extremely racist and ignorant of you to mention. Oh, and your boobs don't even look like anything special so I wouldn't lament on the past.

And my response:

Ok, first of all, I think you might be ignorant.Ignorant is defined as being uninformed or unaware.I am informed and aware.Since you are apparently unaware of the meaning of the word ignorant, I can only conclude that you are the ignorant one.

Racist? Not so much. I’m not talking about the color of one’s skin. I’m talking about anyone who walks around without a bra on.What if he had said feminist hippies in the 60s and 70s who burned their bras instead of wearing them? It's a simple fact; if you never wear a bra, you're going to sag regardless of the color of your skin.

Believe me, even now my boobs are better than anything you have.

Ok, so there you go. I had my chance to respond. I've also decided to disabled anonymous comments on my blog. I enjoy getting comments, even comments that I disagree with, but I also like to have the opportunity to respond.

Bottom line, if you're going to leave a nasty comment, fine, but man up and own it!

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

I have finally convinced my husband that my true calling in life is to be a vampire and last week we moved to Forks, Washington in pursuit of that.

Ok, not really. But it feels like we've moved to the Pacific Northwest with all the rain we've gotten this past week.

I literally have not seen the sun since we were in Cancun two weekends ago!

This was the scene from my front porch at 2:00 Monday afternoon.

Can you see the water coming off the roof?

Luke's water bowl was empty a few days ago.

This is a popular restaurant near (now in) the Chattahoochee River in the Vinings area. (I think my friend Lisa took this photo. I hope she doesn't mind that I swiped it off of Facebook.)

As a result of all this rain, we've had school closing, roads flooded, friends stranded and water damage in homes. Basically it's been a real pain in the A55 rear.Can anyone please describe the sun to me? I think I've forgotten what it looks like!

*UPDATE* Almost exactly 24 hours after the first picture was taken, I took another one...

Thursday, September 17, 2009

One of my favorite beach activities is to watch the sunrise and sunset. I love the beach so much, I just find it refreshing to start the day and end the day right on it.

Every morning we were in Cancun we got up and headed to the beach for the sunrise.

The 6:33 a.m. sunrise.

Yes, we are cool like that and get up early on our vacation.

In Cancun, the sunrises were beautiful. You can see the clouds just on the horizon. Every morning they were there and they stayed there the whole day. They never rolled in and rained.

You'll also notice how rough the tide is. Anyone familiar with the Gulf and Caribbean knows that they are usually relatively calm bodies of water. Waves this big were very unusual. In fact, the red flags were out 3 of our 4 days there.

This might be my favorite sunrise picture I took. It was taken the last morning we were there about 1/2 hour after sunrise. If you look closely you can see the sunbeams radiating out of the clouds onto the ocean, which looks (deceptively) calm. It's such a picture of serenity.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

I have been busy trying to catch up on emails, blogs, etc, so I'm just going to do a summary picture post of our trip.

Here is the view from the resort where we stayed.

I totally love how the housekeepers would make little animals with the towels every day!

Sitting on the beach watching a parasailer go by

We went over to watch the sunset on the Lagoon and got eaten by a shark

Hubs tried to take a picture of us on the beach...he has a hard time smiling and pushing the button. It's that whole multi-tasking thing, yk.

And then some one took a picture for us

The little tiki hut that we lounged under every day just reading, drinking, and listening to the waves.

On the dock by the Lagoon at sunset

Alex was thrilled to discover that the local Hooters had the Auburn game on (along with the UGA game and the USC game). We, of course, had to sit and watch it. We met another Auburn couple in there (also from Atlanta) doing the same thing!

Me and the green gaucho. He was a real guy all painted up green.

We got up early two mornings to watch the sunrise. The sunrise and sunset are one of my favorite aspects of the beach experience.

So, there you go. That was pretty much our trip. Not too exciting, but we didn't go for excitement. We went for some R&R and a lot of togetherness...and that's just what we got!

We had a great time.

And another big THANK YOU to Grammy and Granddaddy...they made our vacation possible!

Sunday, September 13, 2009

While you are reading this, I am sitting on a beach such as this, sunning myself next to my husband.

We each have one of these.

We are in Cancun for a little belated Anniversary trip while Grammy and Granddaddy watch the children for the weekend. This is our first trip in over 4 years that we've taken without any children (either externally or in utero). We are pumped!

Thank you Grammy and Granddaddy!! I know we will have a great time and I hope you do too!

************************************************I have been wanting to post these pictures for a while, and since I'm out of town, I figured this would be the perfect time.

Jack is a child that loves the water. As long as nothing above his neck gets wet. As you can imagine, teaching him to swim has been quite the challenge. We have been really working with him all summer and given him lessons as well.

I'm proud to say he's now a full fledged swimmer and I have the photos to prove it! Way to go, Jack! He's really grown up in so many ways this year. 5 is just an amazing number for him.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

This week Cecily has teamed up with Lolli at Better in Bulk and together they have brought Photo Story Friday to a new dimension.

I know there's actually nothing amazing about this picture.I'm just really not that great a photographer.(Although I would be if I had a better camera and learned how to do things with it that include using vocabulary words such as lens, shutter, and apertures.)

I took this picture in September 2008. It was the first Auburn game of the worst season ever season and I was 9+ months pregnant with Charlie.

However, we are on week two of a new season with a new coach and Auburn is undefeated (yes, I am aware we've only played one game, but undefeated is undefeated) so I just had to post a football related photo!

I did actually edit this picture a little bit using all the limited knowledge great Picasa skills I possess.For me, it's the emotion and sentiment that I love about this image.

Auburn football and tailgating during football season is one of the first traditions Alex and I began as a couple after we were married. Alex is fortunate enough to go to the majority of home games and the kids and I tailgate frequently and attend at least one and sometimes two games each year.

When I look at this picture:

I think about how much Jack loves to wear his football gear.

I think about walking to the stadium singing our fight song and cheers and how, for most of the season, it's usually hotter than hell, but we don't care and we're just having a blast.

I think about how Melody is getting older and more into it as well. She loves wearing her cheerleader outfit and chants right along with us. Charlie's clapping along too and it won't be long before Alex is teaching him how to catch a football.

I think about how much we love our university and how we spend a lot of the tailgating time just talking about college experiences and telling and re-telling stories.

I think about how much I love to go back to Auburn every year where each fall we meet up with old friends who we haven't seen since the previous fall.

And despite the fact that I do not like to think of my kids growing up in any fashion, I think about how much Alex and I want them to go to Auburn too so we can keep this tradition going!

We have our first conference game this week when we play Mississippi State.

Unfortunately, I'll miss the game.

Fortunately, I'll be in Cancun on a romantic vacation with my husband and probably won't be thinking about football. Hopefully he won't be thinking about football either.